around the world in...erm...not many days!
I should have blogged sooner. now i have SO much to write about i'm not sure i will remember it all! Here goes....
Leaving Melbourne
So, for a brief catch up, I found out my work were not only definately sponsoring me to live in Australia (yay!) but that they were going to let me use my remaining flights around the world if i wanted to. They told me they would let me have 3.5 weeks off work to go around the world and come back! Bonus!! I never expected them to agree when i asked so when they said yes i got very excited and slightly paniced at the obstacles to making it happen. but who cares about obstacles right?? they are there to make the climbing more interesting!!!
So number one problem was my visa. I had about 4 weeks left on my working holiday visa and id hard it can take weeks/months for the employer sponsored one to go through! I wasn't prepared to take one step off australian soil until i had 100% guarentee they would let me back in! Mu flights left in 10 days.....
by sheer determination and crazy obsession with being sponsored in the first place i thankfully had all my paperwork ready to hand over to immigration the day they needed it. I also convinced them to apply for (and pay for) an extra bridging visa that let me leave the country and come back whilst my new visa was being processed. win! Within 24 hours id given them everything they needed.....and they left me to play the waiting game for 5 days. I would know by Wednesday and my flights left sat....
there were more dramas too. i had missed one of my flights and i found out by sheer coincidence that this actually means you give up alllll the others. id faced the prospect of arriving in Auckland and not being allowed on the plane to the states!!! Eek! Thankfully, this trip was meant to be, and i did find this out...a quick phone call to the airline i was rebooked onto a new flight (for a very cheap cost i may add!!) and set to go.....
Wednesday the visa was through (bridging) and all i had to do was pack :) As a bonus my ACTUAL visa came through on Friday so i could also celebrate my officialness of legalness in Australia for at least 2 more years :D
Anyway...so dramas over, flights sorted, rucksacked stuffed with as little as i could bare to bring...I was ready to go! I spent Friday evening at a friends house cos it was nearer the train station to get me to the airport and at 2.30pm (after abit too much wine) I was on my way :)
The flight to Auckland was at stupid o clock in the morning to sleep wasnt going to happen that night. Not the best way to start a very fast journey through jetlag but hey ho! I befriended a kiwi guy at the airport (well...he befriended me) to pass the time as he told me all his relationship woes and i struggled to keep my eyes open....
Eventually though I arrived in Auckland New Zealand for my 3 days there - exhausted and possibly the only person jetlagged on a flight 3 hrs into the future......
Auckland
Auckland was wet. and cold. I will never complain about Melbourne weather again!!! Due to the jetlag i pretty much did nothing on the first day but sleep. I met some nice brits in my room who informed me auckland was boring and they couldnt wait to leave. a good start!!!
Sunday was better. The sun came out for abit and I ventured out for a wander and found myself at the ferry terminal. So i jumped on a ferry to Rangitoto Island - basically a volcano thats now an island. Its a young volcano but not getting ready to explode again anytime soon or anything. The weather was bursts of sun and rain which wasnt ideal but better than the torrential downpour of the day before....
Due to this dodgy weather (and not my laziness) i opted to take the funky tractor drawn train thingy around the island :) it was a really pretty place (but apparently as the guide continuously mentioned - much better in summer) and eventually we made it to the top of the volcano for some photos just as the sun (and a rainbow!!) came out :)
Once I was back on the mainland, my friend Nikki who i'd met in Darwin came to meet me at the ferry terminal and we got to catch up over coffee which was awesome :)
Monday was my last day in Auckland. I don't think i made the right choice of what to do really as that day was much sunnier and i could have gone to another island! But instead i went to the Auckland Museum which was interesting but i've seen so many museums now they are getting abit old.....! It was a nice walk to get there though so managed to see quite abit of Auckland doing that....as interesting as i think that city will get!
In the afternoon I met Kolja, my german friend i met in Noosa and we hung out for abit which was also awesome :)
I spent the sunset/evening going up the skytower and as i had nothing else to do that night i stayed up there about 2 hours taking tons of photos at various stages of sunset. heh.
So yes, that was Auckland. Really not the best location. I'm still looking forward to actually seeing NZ in the future though as once you get out of the city its supposed to be much better. And in summer. definately going back in summer!!!
The longest Tuesday in the world
So Tuesday was airport/plane/San Francisco day!! It was a LONG day.
For some perspective.....
I left Auckland 1pm Tuesday
I spent 12 hours on a plane
I arrived in LA at 6.30am.....on Tuesday.
I spent 8 hours (mostly asleep on the floor like a hobo being watched over by a lovely scottish couple) in LA airport.
I arrived in san francisco at 4pm Tuesday.
It was crazy times!!!
So....San Fran!!! its a seriously cool city. and foggy. very very foggy!!! Still...warmer and drier than Melbourne and Auckland so i was happy :)
I got to my hostel and wasted no time getting out onto the streets to see the city i fell in love with when i was 14 :) I made it as far as Union Square and seriously died of happiness when there across the street....and i swear it was glowing like the promised land.....was my much loved/much missed/much moaned about lack of in australia....H&M!!!! Oh yes i was happy. excited. almost pee'ed my pants. I had not even considered i would come anywhere near this hallowed institution till i was back in Manchester. I literally ran into the road to get myself through the door. Breathe in. out. life is now back to how it should be :) As if to welcome me back into its loving arms it delivered me the yellow cardigan i had failed to buy 4 years ago and regretted ever since.
H&M i salute you!
Anyway, shopping aside (i also rejoiced in the return of urban outfitters to my clothes-starved world) i found a Thai restaurant to eat dinner by myself. It was actually really good and cheap. However once they produced the bill i remembered something about being supposed to tip in America. I had no guide book so had no idea how much...and being too stingy to want to risk tipping too much, and too embarrased to tip too little...i waited for the waitress to be distracted, left the exact money, and legged out out the door. Don't think i'll be allowed in there again!!!
Back in the hostel i met some girls in my room and invited myself out drinking with them. So that night i went to bed at about 1am and have no idea how long that Tuesday was. but it was long.....
San Francisco
San Francisco is awesome. It really is. I spent the morning on a free walking tour that took me around all the main sights downtown. I walked up lots of hills, saw some foggy views and witnessed both a cable car and fire engine get stuck on the steep steep hills. I learnt lots about san fran that i will have now forgotten and the highlight was definately the Beat Museum which was all about the history of the beat generation and had lots of tributes to jack kerouac. woop!
In the afternoon I headed down to Fishermans Wharf (tourist trap central) to meet my old housemate Al who happened to be in San Fran the same time. I had no working phone but told him to meet me at the sea lions. These were actual sea lions but i hadnt made this clear. So while i enjoyed the noises and smell of sea lions Al was waiting at a sea lion statue!!
Thankfully, once we had both given up, we bumped into each other in all the tourists! yay :) So the rest of that afternoon was spent wandering around fishermans wharf, drinking some beer and ending in chinatown for dinner (yay for not eating alone!!!) It was an exhausting day of way too much walking so i collapsed in bed early.
I had an early start Thurs though (8am pick up!!) to go on a tour of the wine country! id made an irish girl and aussie girl the day before who had decided to come along to which made it even better. We were driven out out of the fog and into the blazing sun of the Napa and Somoma Valleys :) First glass of wine was at 10.15am and the day got better and better from there with loads of wine tasting, and working out ways of getting more wine than everyone else......! Suprisingly though we didnt get THAT drunk, just abit tipsy. Possibly down to the huge lunch in Yountsville which was a really small, beautiful place we got to play around in for 2 hours. We even got some sunbathing in :)
We were driven back to san fran at the end of the day (2 bottles of wine heavier to be carted back to the UK!) over the Golden Gate Bridge.
As it was my last night in san fran i thought it best to go out one last time so we all gate crashed another hostels pub crawl with another girl we had met on the tour. It was abit mainstream places for my liking but i met some nice local boys (one dreadlocked of course) who told me where all the places i would like are in case i ever go back :)
....and then Friday came all too soon and it was time to depart san fran for NYC.....and anither day spent entirely on planes and in airports! pah!!!
New York City baby!!...
This journey was less fun. A 5 hours flight with no entertainment onboard and i didnt have a book or my laptop! and my mp3 player was dead. well planned!!! So i prepared for a very boring flight which i promptly slept for half of so i wouldnt go insane. not a good idea seeing as i arrived at my hostel at 1am.....
So far id been coping with all the time zone changes remarkably well. New York i did not get off quite so easily as i lay wide awake all night......It was only 3 hrs time difference so i dont know if it was just insomnia but it was annoying!!! Knowing i only had 2 days in New York I knew that despite no sleep i really had to just keep going regardless. Not easy for me who crumbles without sleep but i was determined!
So by 9am i was out of the hostel, feeling like a zombie, and downing many coffees (that only made me feel more sick....) I had breakfast a cute cafe near my hostel and went to find the start of a walking tour id read about. I won't lie...the whole morning of the day wasnt the best....being dragged around at record speed over the Brooklyn bridge, around city hall, wall street, other tall famous buildings, ground zero (now a building ground all boarded up where they are beginning the build "the freedom towers" which will be taller than the twin towers and i really had to hold my tongue to ask if this wasnt just asking for trouble???....i think that might have been offensive though??!!). We then whizzed on a ferry over to Stratten Island so we could go past the statue of liberty and then back again (after running to catch the return ferry and nearly losing my shorts....). The tour finished at about 2pm and it only covered a small section of NY. I had a long afternoon ahead of me.....
I set off to washington square first. Definately my fave area of all of NY it was beautiful so i ate lunch there and watched some buskers and lay about trying to gather energy. Once fed and rested i continued on towards Union Square, 34TH st (where the shops are), went all the way up the empire state building, and then over to Times Square which was abit too bright and busy for me....!!! I also made a stop by Grand Central station but by this point my feet were about to fall off so i retired for the day....On saying that, id pretty much covered all of manhatten in a day so it wasnt bad going!!
Which...at long last (anyone make it this far?!) i made it to today. I spent today going back to greenwich village near washington square cos it was such an awesome area and so wanted to see more of it! (i also realised this was the best place to go out), then went to Chinatown, Little Italy, Rockerfellar Plaza and eventually ended the day walking around Central Park (its fucking huge!!!!!!).
I now await my lift to the airport that will deliver me back to Manchester.
Im very excited!!!!!!
:)
Leaving Melbourne
So, for a brief catch up, I found out my work were not only definately sponsoring me to live in Australia (yay!) but that they were going to let me use my remaining flights around the world if i wanted to. They told me they would let me have 3.5 weeks off work to go around the world and come back! Bonus!! I never expected them to agree when i asked so when they said yes i got very excited and slightly paniced at the obstacles to making it happen. but who cares about obstacles right?? they are there to make the climbing more interesting!!!
So number one problem was my visa. I had about 4 weeks left on my working holiday visa and id hard it can take weeks/months for the employer sponsored one to go through! I wasn't prepared to take one step off australian soil until i had 100% guarentee they would let me back in! Mu flights left in 10 days.....
by sheer determination and crazy obsession with being sponsored in the first place i thankfully had all my paperwork ready to hand over to immigration the day they needed it. I also convinced them to apply for (and pay for) an extra bridging visa that let me leave the country and come back whilst my new visa was being processed. win! Within 24 hours id given them everything they needed.....and they left me to play the waiting game for 5 days. I would know by Wednesday and my flights left sat....
there were more dramas too. i had missed one of my flights and i found out by sheer coincidence that this actually means you give up alllll the others. id faced the prospect of arriving in Auckland and not being allowed on the plane to the states!!! Eek! Thankfully, this trip was meant to be, and i did find this out...a quick phone call to the airline i was rebooked onto a new flight (for a very cheap cost i may add!!) and set to go.....
Wednesday the visa was through (bridging) and all i had to do was pack :) As a bonus my ACTUAL visa came through on Friday so i could also celebrate my officialness of legalness in Australia for at least 2 more years :D
Anyway...so dramas over, flights sorted, rucksacked stuffed with as little as i could bare to bring...I was ready to go! I spent Friday evening at a friends house cos it was nearer the train station to get me to the airport and at 2.30pm (after abit too much wine) I was on my way :)
The flight to Auckland was at stupid o clock in the morning to sleep wasnt going to happen that night. Not the best way to start a very fast journey through jetlag but hey ho! I befriended a kiwi guy at the airport (well...he befriended me) to pass the time as he told me all his relationship woes and i struggled to keep my eyes open....
Eventually though I arrived in Auckland New Zealand for my 3 days there - exhausted and possibly the only person jetlagged on a flight 3 hrs into the future......
Auckland
Auckland was wet. and cold. I will never complain about Melbourne weather again!!! Due to the jetlag i pretty much did nothing on the first day but sleep. I met some nice brits in my room who informed me auckland was boring and they couldnt wait to leave. a good start!!!
Sunday was better. The sun came out for abit and I ventured out for a wander and found myself at the ferry terminal. So i jumped on a ferry to Rangitoto Island - basically a volcano thats now an island. Its a young volcano but not getting ready to explode again anytime soon or anything. The weather was bursts of sun and rain which wasnt ideal but better than the torrential downpour of the day before....
Due to this dodgy weather (and not my laziness) i opted to take the funky tractor drawn train thingy around the island :) it was a really pretty place (but apparently as the guide continuously mentioned - much better in summer) and eventually we made it to the top of the volcano for some photos just as the sun (and a rainbow!!) came out :)
Once I was back on the mainland, my friend Nikki who i'd met in Darwin came to meet me at the ferry terminal and we got to catch up over coffee which was awesome :)
Monday was my last day in Auckland. I don't think i made the right choice of what to do really as that day was much sunnier and i could have gone to another island! But instead i went to the Auckland Museum which was interesting but i've seen so many museums now they are getting abit old.....! It was a nice walk to get there though so managed to see quite abit of Auckland doing that....as interesting as i think that city will get!
In the afternoon I met Kolja, my german friend i met in Noosa and we hung out for abit which was also awesome :)
I spent the sunset/evening going up the skytower and as i had nothing else to do that night i stayed up there about 2 hours taking tons of photos at various stages of sunset. heh.
So yes, that was Auckland. Really not the best location. I'm still looking forward to actually seeing NZ in the future though as once you get out of the city its supposed to be much better. And in summer. definately going back in summer!!!
The longest Tuesday in the world
So Tuesday was airport/plane/San Francisco day!! It was a LONG day.
For some perspective.....
I left Auckland 1pm Tuesday
I spent 12 hours on a plane
I arrived in LA at 6.30am.....on Tuesday.
I spent 8 hours (mostly asleep on the floor like a hobo being watched over by a lovely scottish couple) in LA airport.
I arrived in san francisco at 4pm Tuesday.
It was crazy times!!!
So....San Fran!!! its a seriously cool city. and foggy. very very foggy!!! Still...warmer and drier than Melbourne and Auckland so i was happy :)
I got to my hostel and wasted no time getting out onto the streets to see the city i fell in love with when i was 14 :) I made it as far as Union Square and seriously died of happiness when there across the street....and i swear it was glowing like the promised land.....was my much loved/much missed/much moaned about lack of in australia....H&M!!!! Oh yes i was happy. excited. almost pee'ed my pants. I had not even considered i would come anywhere near this hallowed institution till i was back in Manchester. I literally ran into the road to get myself through the door. Breathe in. out. life is now back to how it should be :) As if to welcome me back into its loving arms it delivered me the yellow cardigan i had failed to buy 4 years ago and regretted ever since.
H&M i salute you!
Anyway, shopping aside (i also rejoiced in the return of urban outfitters to my clothes-starved world) i found a Thai restaurant to eat dinner by myself. It was actually really good and cheap. However once they produced the bill i remembered something about being supposed to tip in America. I had no guide book so had no idea how much...and being too stingy to want to risk tipping too much, and too embarrased to tip too little...i waited for the waitress to be distracted, left the exact money, and legged out out the door. Don't think i'll be allowed in there again!!!
Back in the hostel i met some girls in my room and invited myself out drinking with them. So that night i went to bed at about 1am and have no idea how long that Tuesday was. but it was long.....
San Francisco
San Francisco is awesome. It really is. I spent the morning on a free walking tour that took me around all the main sights downtown. I walked up lots of hills, saw some foggy views and witnessed both a cable car and fire engine get stuck on the steep steep hills. I learnt lots about san fran that i will have now forgotten and the highlight was definately the Beat Museum which was all about the history of the beat generation and had lots of tributes to jack kerouac. woop!
In the afternoon I headed down to Fishermans Wharf (tourist trap central) to meet my old housemate Al who happened to be in San Fran the same time. I had no working phone but told him to meet me at the sea lions. These were actual sea lions but i hadnt made this clear. So while i enjoyed the noises and smell of sea lions Al was waiting at a sea lion statue!!
Thankfully, once we had both given up, we bumped into each other in all the tourists! yay :) So the rest of that afternoon was spent wandering around fishermans wharf, drinking some beer and ending in chinatown for dinner (yay for not eating alone!!!) It was an exhausting day of way too much walking so i collapsed in bed early.
I had an early start Thurs though (8am pick up!!) to go on a tour of the wine country! id made an irish girl and aussie girl the day before who had decided to come along to which made it even better. We were driven out out of the fog and into the blazing sun of the Napa and Somoma Valleys :) First glass of wine was at 10.15am and the day got better and better from there with loads of wine tasting, and working out ways of getting more wine than everyone else......! Suprisingly though we didnt get THAT drunk, just abit tipsy. Possibly down to the huge lunch in Yountsville which was a really small, beautiful place we got to play around in for 2 hours. We even got some sunbathing in :)
We were driven back to san fran at the end of the day (2 bottles of wine heavier to be carted back to the UK!) over the Golden Gate Bridge.
As it was my last night in san fran i thought it best to go out one last time so we all gate crashed another hostels pub crawl with another girl we had met on the tour. It was abit mainstream places for my liking but i met some nice local boys (one dreadlocked of course) who told me where all the places i would like are in case i ever go back :)
....and then Friday came all too soon and it was time to depart san fran for NYC.....and anither day spent entirely on planes and in airports! pah!!!
New York City baby!!...
This journey was less fun. A 5 hours flight with no entertainment onboard and i didnt have a book or my laptop! and my mp3 player was dead. well planned!!! So i prepared for a very boring flight which i promptly slept for half of so i wouldnt go insane. not a good idea seeing as i arrived at my hostel at 1am.....
So far id been coping with all the time zone changes remarkably well. New York i did not get off quite so easily as i lay wide awake all night......It was only 3 hrs time difference so i dont know if it was just insomnia but it was annoying!!! Knowing i only had 2 days in New York I knew that despite no sleep i really had to just keep going regardless. Not easy for me who crumbles without sleep but i was determined!
So by 9am i was out of the hostel, feeling like a zombie, and downing many coffees (that only made me feel more sick....) I had breakfast a cute cafe near my hostel and went to find the start of a walking tour id read about. I won't lie...the whole morning of the day wasnt the best....being dragged around at record speed over the Brooklyn bridge, around city hall, wall street, other tall famous buildings, ground zero (now a building ground all boarded up where they are beginning the build "the freedom towers" which will be taller than the twin towers and i really had to hold my tongue to ask if this wasnt just asking for trouble???....i think that might have been offensive though??!!). We then whizzed on a ferry over to Stratten Island so we could go past the statue of liberty and then back again (after running to catch the return ferry and nearly losing my shorts....). The tour finished at about 2pm and it only covered a small section of NY. I had a long afternoon ahead of me.....
I set off to washington square first. Definately my fave area of all of NY it was beautiful so i ate lunch there and watched some buskers and lay about trying to gather energy. Once fed and rested i continued on towards Union Square, 34TH st (where the shops are), went all the way up the empire state building, and then over to Times Square which was abit too bright and busy for me....!!! I also made a stop by Grand Central station but by this point my feet were about to fall off so i retired for the day....On saying that, id pretty much covered all of manhatten in a day so it wasnt bad going!!
Which...at long last (anyone make it this far?!) i made it to today. I spent today going back to greenwich village near washington square cos it was such an awesome area and so wanted to see more of it! (i also realised this was the best place to go out), then went to Chinatown, Little Italy, Rockerfellar Plaza and eventually ended the day walking around Central Park (its fucking huge!!!!!!).
I now await my lift to the airport that will deliver me back to Manchester.
Im very excited!!!!!!
:)